Hellraisers Journal – Monday November 2, 1908
The Overall Brigade “Abroad the Nation” from Missoula to Chicago
In the Industrial Union Bulletin of September 19th, J. H. Walsh described the journey of the Overall Brigade, riding the rails from Portland, Oregon, to the I. W. W. Convention in Chicago. He ended his account with the Brigade encamped near Missoula, Montana. The Brigade was bent on making it to Chicago by September 21st, the first day of the Convention. The story of the journey to Chicago is found completed in the latest edition of the Bulletin.
From The Industrial Union Bulletin of October 24, 1908:
ABROAD THE NATION
By J. H. WALSH.
The “Overall Brigade,” en route from Portland, Ore., to Chicago to the Fourth Annual Convention of the Industrial Workers of the World at this point, has finished another successful propaganda meeting at Missoula, Mont. This makes three successful meetings in this city. Literature sales have been the best here of any place so far on our route, while the song sales have doubled, running as high as $10 or $12 per meeting. The collections have been in the same proportion. In fact, it is the first place where the audience has thrown dollars into the crowd at the feet of the singers, as well as many smaller pieces of change that came jingling along at the same time. One collection in the hat was $14.25. This all tells one story in brief-and that is the growing sentiment toward Industrial Unionism.
It is plain to see that the lumbermen’s union, which was generally understood to be a part of the W. F. of M., will soon be a part of the I. W. W. But with all the favorable conditions and enthusiasm, and a thousand invitations for the “bunch” to return, we are off again for the railroad yards to continue our journey to the city of Butte-the noted mining camp.
Our special car is found. It goes in our direction as far as Garrison Junction. It is not a long ride, and we are now spinning along at passenger speed. The long blast of the whistle which sounds and resounds through the mountain tops and valleys on this cold morning, announces that we are approaching the junction. We are there, unloaded and off for the jungles. The cook and a delegate are on their way to the store for supplies, while the rest and the “bunch” is shivering around the camp fire.
Soon the fire is burning bright, the breakfast is cooking and the sun is making its appearance above the horizon, which adds some comfort to our condition on these cold mornings in the Rocky Mountain country. The delicious breakfast is ready and the “bunch” is congregated to partake of the passover.
Hellraisers Journal, Wednesday September 23, 1908
Adventures of the Overall Brigade Enroute to Chicago
From The Industrial Union Bulletin of September 19, 1908:
[J. H. Walsh on the I.W.W’s Red Special, Part II of II.]
In Seattle we held several good meetings and then departed for the east. We met a very nice train crew apparently, out of Seattle. They claimed to all be union men, but they proved to be cheap dogs of the railroad. Fearing such a large bunch, they telegraphed ahead to Auburn Junction for a force to take us off. When we arrived at the junction we were surrounded by a band of railroad officials-the papers stated there were 25-when we were covered by guns and told to unload. We were marched to jail and held over night. In the morning the writer was separated from the bunch, but finally we were all turned loose. Being separated, we did not learn until evening where each and all were. However, all except the writer had gotten back to Seattle, and secured the services of Attorney Brown, to take up the case, should it become necessary. It was not necessary. The boys held a street meeting in Seattle, and part started from there for Spokane, over one road, and the rest over another road.
We continued our work of propaganda without missing a single date, and all re-united at Spokane, where we held several good meetings. Leaving Spokane, we took in Sandpoint, Idaho, and then rambled into Missoula, Montana, where we had some of the best meetings of all the places along the route.
We put the “Starvation Army” on the bum, and packed the streets from one side to the other. The literature sales were good, the collections good, and the red cards containing the songs sold like hot cakes.
At Missoula, Mont., we have completed two full week’s work on the road. We left Portland with 20 members. We lost 4 of them, but we picked up one at Seattle, and two at Spokane, so our industrial band is practically the same as when we started.
My views have not changed in the least
since our conviction.
-Big Bill Haywood
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Hellraisers Journal, Wednesday September 11, 1918
Leavenworth, Kansas – Haywood and 92 Fellow Workers Enter Prison
From The Leavenworth Times of September 8, 1918:
I.W.W.’S ENTER FEDERAL PEN
WITH AIR OF UNCONCERN
[Part I]
—–
CREW OF NINETY-THREE ARRIVED FROM CHICAGO
LATE YESTERDAY AFTERNOON.
—–
STILL HOLD SAME VIEWS
—–
Big Bill Haywood, National Secretary-Treasurer, Tells Newspaper
Reporters That No One There Ever Hindered Government War Program-
Will Not Be Dressed in Until Monday Morning-Other Prisoners
Greet Them With Sneers and Cold Stares.
—–
Big Bill Haywood
Displaying a spirit of bravado and wearing the air of martyred heroes, William D. “Big Bill” Haywood and the ninety-two Industrial Workers of the World, entered the Federal penitentiary here yesterday [September 7th] to begin sentences for attempting to overturn America’s war program. They arrived in special cars from Chicago at 3 o’clock in the afternoon and at 4:30 everyone was inside the prison walls.
“My views have not changed in the least since our conviction” stated Big Bill Haywood, secretary-treasurer of the National I. W. W., who was given twenty years.
I am still thoroughly convince that not one of the men here has ever hindered the government’s war preparations in the least; on the contrary the I. W. W. has materially assisted in carrying out war activities. Not a munition ship leaves the city of Philadelphia that is not loaded by members of the organization and only two docks on the water front employ other laborers.
WANTS U. S. TO WIN.
Gentle men, understand this, that though I am emphatically opposed to war, my sympathies are with the United Staters in the present conflict, I now see where it could not have been avoided and must be pushed to a successful conclusion. No man has ever been more emphatic in condemning Germany than myself; the Kaiser and the Prussian junkers must be crushed and war, though wrong, seems to be the only method it is possible to use.
Remember, this is the only
American working-class movement which sings.
Tremble then at the I. W. W.,
for a singing movement is not to be beaten.
-Jack Reed
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Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday September 3, 1918
Chicago, Illinois – “Big Bill Haywood, with his black Stetson…”
From The Liberator of September 1918:
Part II of John Reed’s coverage of Chicago I. W. W. trial with drawings by Art Young-
The Social Revolution In Court
By Art Young And John Reed
—–
In the early morning they come over from Cook County Jail, where most of them have been rotting three-quarters of a year, and march into the court-room two by two, between police and detectives, bailiffs snarling at the spectators who stand too close. It used to be that they were marched four times a day through the streets of Chicago, hand-cuffed; but the daily circus parade has been done away with.
Now they file in, the ninety-odd who are still in jail, greeting their friends as they pass; and there they are joined by the others, those who are out on bail. The bail is so high-from $25,000 apiece down-that only a few can be let free. The rest have been in that horrible jail-Cook County-since early last fall; almost a year in prison for a hundred men who love freedom more than most.
On the front page of the Daily Defense Bulletin, issued by headquarters, is a drawing of a worker behind the bars, and underneath, “REMEMBER! We are in HERE for YOU; You are out THERE for US! ”
There goes Big Bill Haywood, with his black Stetson above a face like a scarred mountain; Ralph Chaplin, looking like Jack London in his youth; Reddy Doran, of kindly pugnacious countenance, and mop of bright red hair falling over the green eye-shade he always wears; Harrison George, whose forehead is lined with hard thinking; Sam Scarlett, who might have been a yeoman at Crecy; George Andreytchine, his eyes full of Slav storm; Charley Ashleigh, fastidious, sophisticated, with the expression of a well-bred Puck; Grover Perry, young, stony-faced after the manner of the West; Jim Thompson, John Foss, J. A. MacDonald; Boose, Prancner, Rothfisher, Johanson, Lossiev….
Then raise the scarlet standard high,
Beneath its folds we’ll live and die,
Tho’ cowards flinch and traitors sneer,
We’ll keep the Red Flag flying here!
-Jim Connell
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Hellraisers Journal, Friday July 31, 1908
Fellow Worker James Wilson on the Songs of Social Revolution
From The Industrial Union Bulletin of July 25, 1908:
MUSIC
—–
One of the Most Powerful
of the Natural Forces.
[by James Wilson]
Among the physical forces, made useful to men, sound has played one of the most important parts. We use the word light, in a literal as well as figurative sense. But sound has more often a real, plain meaning.
Is not the ear the most perfect of the organs of sense? We can remember a tune, long after the words have been forgotten.
The association of sounds, and in a higher degree, music, is one of the most lasting and forcible of impressions.
What old cavalry veteran does not know that even the war horse remembers the different bugle calls, and will neigh and paw the ground with excitement when he hears the stirring blast of the trumpet?
We know that music stirs the emotions in every way. The majestic funeral march of Beethoven appeals to the mind with its solemn and awful grandeur; the latest rag-time dance tune fills us with the feeling of gaiety and enlivens our care-worn existence.
What more powerful to excite ridicule than a comic song? How very useful to bring out the hollowness of the sham religionists, with their sounding drum and doleful chants while they pick our pockets and tell us that “he that giveth to the poor, lendeth to the Lord!” The debt to be repaid in the next world-probably Mars-for that its the world nearest to the earth!
The sky-pilots have long told us of reviving grace-whatever that may be. They also tell us to “taste of the Lord and see that He is good.”
In factory and field and mine we gather in our might,
We’re on the job and know the way to win the hardest fight,
For the beacon that shall guide us out of darkness into light,
Is One Big Industrial Union!
-Ralph Chaplin
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Hellraisers Journal, Monday July 22, 1918
Chicago, Illinois – “I.W.W. Songs to Fan the Flames of Discontent”
It is really surprising how soon a crowd
will form on the street to hear
a song in the interest of the working class.
-Fellow Worker James Wilson, Spokane
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Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday May 19, 1908
Spokane, Washington – Music fans “the holy flame of discontent.”
CORRESPONDENCE.
—–
The Value of Music in I. W. W. Meetings.
The use and value of music is one of the oldest and best known factors in influencing the human mind and moving men to action.
What tribe or nation of men, from the original savage to the “civilized” man of today, has not been swayed and stirred by the almost all-compelling power of harmony, rude or cultivated?
The cradle-song of the mother lulls the baby of the barbarian and soothed us ourselves when still infants. The wild war drum roused the hordes who overthrew Rome; the martial band and the fiery bugle incite the brother-murdering armies of the modern capitalist state. The indescribable powers of music are thus effectual alike for good and evil.
Can we, as Industrial Unionists, afford entirely to ignore the scientific study of this mighty auxiliary in our task of stimulating and rousing the lethargy and indifference of the downtrodden and well nigh hopeless mass of the working class?
It is said that the Marseillaise Hymn won all the battles of the French Revolution, from the epoch-making battle of Valmy to the last one of the brilliant military successes of Napoleon.
To avail ourselves of the weapons and arms of the enemy has always been part of successful generalship, even as the very form of our organization is adapted to meet the organized enemy, the capitalist class.
My body? Oh, if I could choose,
I would to ashes to reduce
And let the merry breezes blow,
My dust to where some flowers grow.
Perhaps some fading flowers then Would come to live and bloom again. This is my last and final will, Good luck to all of you, -Joe Hill
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Hellraisers Journal: Friday November 17, 1916
Seattle, Washington – “Christians at War,” a Blasphemous Song?
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer makes clear that the I. W. W. song, “Christians at War,” is blasphemous song and a “song of hate.” The “Intelligencer” warns that the song is found in the I. W. W. Songbook dedicated as the “Joe Hill Memorial Edition” and goes on to describe Fellow Worker Hill as “an I. W. W. sympathizer.” We proudly point out that Joe Hill was a card-carrying member of the Industrial Workers of the World. FW Hill was a world-famous songwriter, a poet, an artist, and a true blue rebel, dedicated to the principles of the One Big Union of all the workers.
WE NEVER FORGET
From the Seattle Post-Intelligencer of November 15, 1916:
1-Front cover of the I. W. W. Book of Songs, containing the “Hymn of Hate” and other seditious [?] verse. The volume is inscribed “Joe Hill Memorial Edition,” The “Joe Hill” being the notorious Joseph Hillstrom, an I. W. W. sympathizer who was executed in Utah for cold-blooded murder. The I. W. W. sought at the last moment to prove as alibi for the murderer, but the [attempt failed?]. Spry [Governor of Utah] declined to interfere, and the verdict of the jury and the sentence of the court was carried out. This I. W. W. book of songs is sold [?] in the Seattle local and wherever the organization is allowed to exist.
2-“Christians at War, “ a blasphemous song set to the music of “Onward, Christian Soldiers,” which was sung by the Seattle I. W. W. when they invaded Everett and fought the battle that resulted in six deaths, Sunday, November 5.
———-
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